What is the relationship between womens reproductive bodies and womens productive work?How does womens potential for maternity affect womens workplace opportunity?How far can women choose and maintain their own embodied boundaries in relation to work and working practices?This fascinating and topical book evaluates the growing debate on gender, womens bodies, and work. Through the lens of the body - and from a feminist perspective - Gatrell considers womens work from two angles, the first conceptualizing the labour of maternity as womens work, the second exploring the dynamics between womens bodies and employment.The author suggests that maternity constitutes womens work, with some women expected to produce children, while others are criticised for giving birth. She calls for the re-conceptualization of pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding as forms of labour asserting that mothers are required to perform particular forms of body work in order to comply with ideals of good mothering and norms of the workplace. The book observes that these are conflicting requirements, which place irreconcilable demands on women and constrain womens choice.At the heart of Embodying Womens Work is the idea that womens bodies are central to gendered power relations, and remain a negotiated site of power between men and women within late modern society. The book considers womens bodies in the context of different forms of paid work, discussing how far women remain at an economic disadvantage in comparison with male workers. Embodying Womens Work is of key interest for students and academics of sociology, social welfare and womens studies.
